“Gentle” doesn’t mean “nice.” It means, like a well-trained horse, you don’t spook easily.
When Christians go through Paul’s list of the Spirit’s fruit in Galatians—love, joy, peace, etcetera
Or gentle people are patient. They handle others softly, not roughly. Like the washing machine on the gentle cycle: Treats your clothes softly and tenderly, kinda like the way Jesus is calling, “Oh sinner, come home” in Will Thompson’s hymn.
What’re the chances I’m gonna tell you both those definitions are incorrect? Better than average.
The word Paul used for gentleness is prahýtis. It describes someone who’s prahýs/“gentle.” In classical Greek literature, it’s used to describe people or animals who were angry, sad, or fearful… but they got control of themselves.
- In Homer’s Hymn to Hermes, Apollo was enraged, but let music make him gentle. 417
- In Hesiod’s Works and Days, stubborn mules were made tame, or gentle. 797
- In Aeschylus’s Persians, Xerxes tried to gentle a team of horses, 190 and Darius advised Atossa to use gentle words to soothe her grieving son. 837
- In Pindar’s Pythian Odes, Hero was “gentle to his citizens.” 3.71
- And in the Septuagint, Moses was more gentle than anyone,
Nu 12.3 in contrast to his angry brother and sister.Nu 12.1-2
The term refers to someone who’s emotionally stable. You know, like a wild horse that’s been broken, who doesn’t buck every unfamiliar rider, or freak out at every odd thing it encounters. Like a tame animal who’s not passive and quiet one moment, then tearing through your throat the next.
Unlike some humans. And some Christians.
The ancient Greeks highly praised gentility. Gentle rulers weren’t emotion-driven despots, who’d freak out whenever you tweeted something they don’t like. They weren’t easily outraged—which, I remind you, is a work of the flesh. They weren’t thrown into panic, frenzy, depression, or euphoria, at the smallest things. They weren’t quick to sorrow, despair, rejoice, or ecstasy. Like I said, stable.
God’s that way too: Gracious, merciful, slow to anger, quick to forgive.